


Snowballed

by astralpenguin



Category: The Maze Runner (Movies), The Maze Runner Series - All Media Types, The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Maze (Maze Runner), Christmas Party, Everyone Is Alive, Fake/Pretend Relationship, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mistletoe, Party Games, Sonya and Newt are Twins, Underage drinking if you're American
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-19 10:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17000031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin
Summary: “Even ignoring how obviously uncomfortable you’re making him, Newt’s my boyfriend. You aren’t going anywhere with him.”Miyoko detached herself from Newt so quickly it was almost as if she’d been burnt, but Newt barely noticed.Thomas? Had just?? Called him??? His boyfriend????Thomas tells a white lie at a Christmas party to make a girl leave Newt alone, and it very quickly has unexpected consequences





	Snowballed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [booksnchocolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksnchocolate/gifts).



> happy christmas [sarah](https://takethisroad.tumblr.com/) !!!!!!!!

Newt wasn’t entirely sure why he’d let Minho talk him into this.

He didn’t like parties. He _knew_ he didn’t like parties. Not once had he ever gone to a party that he’d enjoyed. He’d figured out very quickly that parties and club nights, with the expectation to jump and dance and be social until it was well into the next day, simply weren’t a thing he wanted to participate in.

Besides, whether he wanted to go or not, he probably couldn’t. He wouldn’t be able to spend hours on end standing or moving around like everyone else. His leg might actually start to kill him if he tried that.

But when Minho told him that he was throwing an end-of-semester Christmas party, and that it would be invite only, and that there wouldn’t be any expectation to keep dancing because he was throwing it in his flat so there wouldn’t be much room for that anyway but there _would_ be plenty of places to sit, Newt didn’t feel right about turning him down.

So here he was.

‘Invite only’ had ended up meaning that people were allowed to bring friends of their own. Newt was well aware that it could have been absolutely disastrous, and that actually the number of people here wasn’t all that bad, but he still didn’t like it. He’d have been a lot happier if it had just been their small group of friends. But it wasn’t, and while he recognised everyone, he didn’t know all of their names.

Minho was standing by the counter, shouting something over the slightly too loud music that had a few people listening with rapt attention. Winston and Ben were watching Frypan and Gally collect up all the open bottles around, and Newt decided he didn’t even want to know what kind of alchemy they were planning to do with those. Sonya and Harriet were actually dancing on the makeshift dancefloor, and seemed like they were beckoning to some of their friends to join them.

Okay, maybe it was Newt’s fault that there were _quite_ so many people there. But in fairness to him, when he'd told his sister about the party, he hadn’t been expecting her to invite all her friends too. He’d expected Harriet and maybe Rachel, though Aris may have invited Rachel along anyway. There were still more people than Newt had been mentally prepared for without his sister’s friends, but he’d definitely contributed with his misstep.

“You okay?” came a voice to his left.

Alby looked concerned, and like he’d been there for more than a few seconds, which meant that Newt had been so busy thinking about how he’d made a series of poor decisions that he hadn’t noticed his friend sitting right next to him.

Bugger.

He tried to give a reassuring smile. “Yeah Alby, I’m good. Just getting used to all this,” he said, gesturing around himself.

Most of the worry on Alby’s face disappeared. “Okay,” he said. “But if you want to leave, just tell me and we can go.”

Newt rolled his eyes good-naturedly. “I don’t need you to walk me home, I can make it across campus without help.”

“Okay,” Alby laughed, holding the hand that wasn’t currently holding a drink up in surrender. “At least tell someone where you’re going before you do.”

Newt nodded. “I will.”

Alby looked out towards where people were dancing. “Mind if I go join in?”

“Course, you don’t need my permission.”

He smiled ruefully. “Don’t wanna abandon you.”

“Mate, I promise I’m fine sitting and watching.” He gently pushed on Alby’s shoulder. “You go have fun.”

Alby grinned, stood, and joined the girls on the dancefloor.

Newt watched them for a few minutes before a commotion somewhere behind him caught his attention. He turned in his seat, towards the door, to see that Thomas and Teresa had finally arrived, which Minho had evidently decided the whole building needed to be aware of if the volume of his welcome was anything to go by.

Thomas lived in the same building as Newt, on the other side of campus. Usually when they were heading to the same place they’d go together, but this time Thomas had wanted to pick his cousin up from her own dorm. Which was reasonable. Newt completely understood why he wasn’t Thomas’ priority in this case.

Understanding it didn’t stop him from being slightly irrationally upset about it.

He knew he was being ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it!

Just like he couldn’t help being a little bit in love with him.

Newt caught Thomas’ eye, raised a hand in greeting, then turned away and grabbed an unopened can of cider off the table next to where he was sitting.

He was apparently in an insecurely-jealous mood, and Newt didn’t want to have to deal with that while sober.

Thomas was Newt’s best friend. He was the first person that he’d met on the first day of the semester, nearly bumping into each other on the stairs. They’d helped each other carry things to their respective rooms, and had quickly discovered that they had some classes together. They’d agreed to stick together as much as possible, initially so that if they got lost then at least they wouldn’t be alone, but then because they found that they got along really well.

It had only taken Newt a few weeks to realise that he’d developed a crush on Thomas. And honestly, who could blame him? Thomas was hot, and confident, but not cocky, and genuinely friendly and fun to be around. He was also on the track team with Minho. Unlike some of the other sports teams that had already had scandals (the basketball team weren’t likely to ever live that one down) the track team was known to be full of good, solid people, who you could trust not to be dicks. Put it all together and Thomas was basically the perfect guy. No wonder Newt had started liking him.

But Thomas hadn’t shown any indication that he even saw Newt as an option.

And Newt was okay with that! He really was! Sure he’d get sad from time to time, and wish that Thomas did see him like that, or would prioritise him a bit more, but he knew that these moments were fleeting and that he was being unreasonable. What meant the most to him was that Thomas was happy. If Thomas was happy, then Newt (eventually) would be too.

He’d just have to deal with it in the meantime.

Newt had just raised the can to his lips when a girl slid into the seat beside him, that Alby had been sitting in a few minutes prior.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hi,” said Newt

“Have we talked before?” She looked thoughtful, and shook her head firmly. “No,” she said. “I don’t think we have.”

“We haven’t,” said Newt, fighting to keep the smile off his face. The girl had obviously been drinking, and though she seemed nice enough, there was no telling how people could react to being laughed at. It would probably be fine, but Newt was still vaguely traumatised from that time that Thomas pointed out a drunk Gally’s eyebrows. That evening hadn’t ended well.

The girl took a swig of the her drink. “I’m Miyoko.”

“Hi Miyoko,” said Newt. “I’m-”

“I know you already!” She pointed across the room towards the dancefloor. “I’m one of Sonya’s friends.” She leaned towards Newt and dropped her voice, forcing Newt to lean in so that he could actually hear her. “I’m not her best friend, because that’s Harriet, but I think they might be hooking up and if that’s true then that makes _me_ her best friend because I’m next in line, and Rachel already has Aris so she doesn’t need Sonya to be hers.”

If Sonya and Harriet _were_ in the process of becoming a thing, Newt wasn’t in any way surprised. “Okay,” he said, and went to sit back upright.

Only for Miyoko to grab his shoulder and hold him still. She held up her drink. “Want some? It’s vodka lemonade. There might be some gin in there too, I’m not sure.” She laughed. “I just grabbed stuff and poured.”

“No thanks,” said Newt, holding up his can. “I’ve got my own already.”

Miyoko frowned for a moment, then shrugged, all sign of disappointment leaving her face. She then downed what was left in her cup, dropped it onto the table, and watched as it bounced off and onto the floor.

Thank fuck Minho had supplied everybody with plastic cups or that could have been _bad_.

She still had one hand on Newt’s shoulder, holding him in place, and she now grabbed his free hand with her other. “I’ve got an idea!”

“....What is it?”

She smiled and leant forwards, placing her head on his other shoulder and smiling up at him. “You’re really cute.”

Oh no.

“I know at least three people who have crushes on you. Or at least who would if they knew you. I think we should...”

Newt tuned out, looking desperately around for someone who could help him. This wasn’t a situation that he’d been prepared for. This had never happened to him before! He didn’t know what to do! If he could rewind the last few minutes and prevent this interaction from ever happening, he would. He wished he could do that.

He caught Thomas looking over at him, a puzzled expression on his face.

Newt hoped his own facial expressions would communicate that he needed help clearly enough for Thomas to understand.

Thankfully, Thomas seemed to get it. He excused himself from the conversation he was having with Brenda, Minho, and Teresa, and walked over to where Newt was sitting with Miyoko basically draping herself all over him.

“Hi Miyo,” said Thomas.

Newt decided that wondering about how Thomas knew her, and how he knew her well enough to use a nickname, was really not important right now.

“Thomas! Hi!” She smiled, but curled her arms tighter around Newt. “Newt and I were just about to go, sorry.”

Thomas frowned, and shook his head. “No,” he said. “You weren’t.”

“Huh? Yeah we were!” She looked up at Newt. “Weren’t we?”

“Uh-”

“Miyo,” Thomas sighed, cutting Newt off. “Even ignoring how obviously uncomfortable you’re making him, Newt’s my boyfriend. You aren’t going anywhere with him.”

Miyoko detached herself from Newt so quickly it was almost as if she’d been burnt, but Newt barely noticed.

Thomas? Had just?? Called him??? His boyfriend????

“I’m really sorry! I had no idea!” She grabbed her empty cup up from the floor. “I’ll just go put this in the bin and then we can never speak of this again.” She stumbled as she stood, and basically fell forwards until she was able to use the wall to steady herself. She then began to slowly walk towards the bins.

Thomas sat where she’d just been. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” said Newt. “Thanks.” He looked to where Miyoko was still struggling to walk, and then over towards the dancefloor. “I should probably get one of her friends to look after her, she’s had way too much.”

“Yeah and it’s only half ten,” Thomas laughed. “It’s good we’re not planning on going out after this because there’s no way she’d get let in anywhere.”

“I just hope she isn’t too sick tomorrow. That’s never fun.”

“You could’ve just told her to go away, you know. She’d have listened.”

“Yeah,” said Newt. “I know. I just freaked out a little. Thanks for saving me.”

Thomas smiled. “You already said that.”

“Well, I mean it. Thank you.”

“I know her from track,” said Thomas after a few moments of quiet between them.

“I wasn’t planning on asking?”

“But you _were_ wondering.” Thomas bumped his shoulder against Newt’s. “I know you by now.”

Newt nodded. “Okay yeah,” he said. “But I’d consciously decided that it wasn’t important.”

“Which makes it a Fun Bonus Fact that you now have in your possession!”

Newt couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, Tommy,” he said. “I guess it is.”

“How’s it been so far without me, anyway?”

“Alright,” said Newt. “I’ve mostly been sitting here, people-watching.”

Thomas nodded almost solemnly. “A respectable way to pass your time.”

It was Newt’s turn to nudge Thomas’ shoulder. “It’s more fun than it sounds! And it’s not like I’m gonna be getting up and dancing any time soon.”

“We could do some dancing here?”

Newt rolled his eyes in fond exasperation. “What on earth are you talking about?”

Thomas gestured for Newt to put his cider down, and once he’d done so Thomas grabbed both Newt’s hands and started moving his own torso around to the music. Newt allowed himself to look unimpressed for all of five seconds before breaking, at which point he laughed and joined in with the ‘dancing’.

However, barely any time at all had passed before they were interrupted.

“Newt, where did Miyo go?” asked Sonya. “Last I saw her she was talking to you.”

Newt reluctantly let Thomas’ hands go and looked around the room.

She was difficult to spot. She’d sat against the wall by the door and curled into a small ball. If anyone opened the door they weren’t likely to realise she was there before squasing her.

Newt pointed his sister towards her.

“Thanks, she’s had like at least half a bottle of vodka to herself, and she found out her boyfriend was cheating on her last week, so she needs to stick with us.”

With that, Sonya walked away.

Newt shook his head in disbelief. “What is it with drunk people and telling you more than you needed to know? I doubt Miyoko wanted that to be public.”

Thomas shrugged. “Lack of a filter I guess, I don’t really know. She might’ve just been telling us so we’d be aware in case anything happens. I didn’t know about Miyo’s boyfriend.”

“Would you have made her go away differently if you had?”

“Huh?” said Thomas, brow furrowing in a way that was so adorable, Newt struggled not to get distracted.

“You told her that _we_ were boyfriends?”

“Oh, that!” Thomas thought for a moment, then said, “No, I think I’d have said the same thing. Any mention of a ‘boyfriend’ could upset her right now, but she wouldn’t want to put anyone else through what she’s going through, so it would be the most sure way to get her to back off.”

Newt had to admit that his logic was sound, even if he didn’t like the thought of upsetting someone.

“Does this mean we have to pretend to be boyfriends around her now?”

If you were to ask Newt why he’d said that, he wouldn’t have been able to give you an answer. Halfway through saying it he was internally screaming at himself to stop before he gave himself away and Thomas worked it out and everything went wrong, but his mouth just wouldn’t cooperate.

However, Thomas didn’t laugh this comment off like Newt had quickly decided would be the most likely outcome. Instead he looked thoughtful, and if Newt didn’t know better he could’ve sworn that Thomas looked kinda sad.

“Only if she brings it up? I’m not gonna do anything that’d make it obvious we aren’t, so we shouldn’t have to actively pretend. If she remembers anything from tonight then I’ll explain the truth when she’s sober.”

Newt knew it was stupid to be disappointed that Thomas’ response hadn’t been something like _‘Yes we absolutely do need to pretend to be boyfriends in front of her, actually we need to pretend to be boyfriends all the time, actually we need to be actual boyfriends right now immediately’,_ but in his defense he was only a little bit sad about it. He’d made peace with his crush being unrequited. Mostly.

“Okay,” said Newt, “that sounds like a plan.”

Thomas grabbed his hands again. Newt tried not to outwardly react too much to this.

“So,” said Thomas, a smile back on his face. “Where were we?”

Newt grinned. “We were doing some strange approximation of movements that seem to somewhat resemble dancing.”

“Wow,” said Thomas. “Here I am, trying to do a nice thing with you, and you go and use fancy words to tell me it’s not proper dancing?”

“Well it’s _not,_ is it?” Newt laughed. “But I do appreciate you sitting with me and doing this.”

Thomas’ smile softened. “Good, I’m glad.”

Newt nodded, and was struck by the thought that if he was actually in a relationship with Thomas, or was planning on doing anything to make that happen, this would be a perfect time to kiss him.

Thankfully, that thought was cut short by Sonya rushing back over and clambering onto the table.

Although, come to think of it, the look on her face usually meant trouble for Newt, so he wasn’t sure how thankful he really was.

“ATTENTION PLEASE!” she yelled. She gestured for the music to be turned down, which it was. “Thank you.” She looked down at Newt and Thomas, and smiled in a way that could only be described as evil. “I have been informed from a reliable source, i.e. Miyoko who was told this by Thomas just moments ago, that Newt and Thomas are dating! I don’t know how long they’ve been dating for, but they are! So people who owe people money need to pay up! That is all.”

As Sonya walked to the edge of the table and jumped off, nobody said a word.

Once she hit the ground, everyone exploded.

“See? I told you! I _told_ you!”

“You can pay me in cash or food, it’s your call bud.”

“For the record, I knew they liked each other, I just didn’t think they’d ever do anything about it.”

“Look, they’re even holding hands!”

Newt started to take his hands back. This had gone way too far way too quickly. Even if he didn’t particularly care if people thought he and Thomas were dating, and even if he wanted it to be the truth, there was no way of knowing if Thomas was okay with that. He’d said he’d set Miyoko straight as soon as he could, so he probably didn’t want people thinking that, and Newt didn’t want Thomas to be feeling uncomfortable. This needed to be stopped before too much money changed hands and had to be given back, because that would just become incredibly confusing.

(The fact that apparently all of his friends had been betting on his and Thomas’ relationship status wasn’t something that he felt even remotely prepared to consider.)

He never managed to actually get his hands back, though. Once they’d started slipping free, Thomas had tightened his grip and pulled Newt towards him. He wrapped an arm around Newt and whispered in his ear.

“Just go with it. Remember Miyoko.”

“But-”

“It’s okay, I don’t mind.” He pulled back so that Newt could see his face. “But if you do, then-”

“I don’t mind,” said Newt.

“Good,” said Thomas, “because this is gonna be hilarious.”

Thomas then turned away slightly and called out to the whole group. “Yeah, yeah, fuck off already, this is why we kept it quiet.”

Newt was endlessly grateful that he was a good actor. It meant that he was able to convincingly nod along with Thomas without any of his true feelings showing on his face. Though he was finally getting to show some of his feelings, to show how he really felt about Thomas (though apparently he hadn’t managed to hide it as well as he’d thought he had), that wasn’t all that was going through his mind.

Thomas had called them pretending to be boyfriends ‘hilarious’. Did that mean he thought that the idea of them dating at all was hilarious? Or was it just pranking their friends that was? Newt desperately hoped that it was the latter, but had a horrible feeling that it was the former. And also, even though just moments ago Newt had hoped that Thomas would want to pretend to be his boyfriend, now that it was actually happening he wasn’t so sure. He didn’t want to fake-date Thomas. He wanted to _actually_ date Thomas.

To be so close but so far would be simultaneously amazing and awful and he didn’t know if he could do it.

“Okay!” Minho yelled. “Now that we’re all here and settled, it’s time for some party games!”

A chorus of groans met him in response. Minho steadfastly ignored them as he switched the music from the mostly pop it had been to a specifically Christmas themed playlist.

“Dude, party games are for five year olds, can we not?” said Winston. “We were having fun!”

Minho faced the group and grinned. “There’s food and alcohol up for grabs.”

The mood of the room changed instantly. Everyone who hadn’t wanted to play now seemed to be the most excited. Newt was entertained at how easily people could be bribed.

He personally didn’t mind party games. They were harmless, and would hopefully take the attention off his ‘relationship’ with Thomas.

“The first game we’ll be playing is musical statues! Everybody please make your way to the dance floor!” Minho opened a cupboard and got out a small bottle of amber liquid. “First out has to take a swig of whatever Gally and Frypan have been creating, and the winner gets the whisky!”

Thomas squeezed Newt’s hands and stood. “I’m gonna join in. Are you coming with, or would you rather watch?”

Newt shook his head. “I’ll do anything but dance.”

Thomas laughed softly. “You wanna be more careful about what you say, I might hold you to that.” He bent down, lightly kissed Newt’s cheek, and walked to the dancefloor.

If Newt was a computer, his screen would’ve turned an ugly shade of blue and would’ve refused to respond to anything other than pulling the plug. That was flirting. Definite flirting. With him. And a kiss. The kiss could’ve just been for show, but it still happened completely unprompted while nobody was paying that much attention to them anymore. And he’d spoken too quietly for anyone else to be able to hear him.

Thomas had gotten a lot more into this in such a short space of time than Newt had thought possible.

Newt grabbed his cider can off the table. It was still mostly full. He took a sip and noticed that Alby was standing fairly close by.

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready to play?” asked Newt.

“Minho and I would like to know why you didn’t tell us, you utter shank. We’re your best friends!”

The thing about suddenly deciding to pretend to date one of your best friends while surrounded by nearly everyone else you know is that you don’t have any opportunity to come up with any cover stories to explain why you didn’t tell the rest of your best friends sooner. Newt’s natural instinct was to tell him that it was all Thomas’ fault, as this whole situation kinda _was,_ but that would be mean.

Which meant he had to improvise.

“We wanted to keep it to ourselves, it wasn’t anything personal. And then if something went wrong we could pretend it never happened and there hopefully wouldn’t be any issues.”

Alby rolled his eyes. “I get it, but you’ve gotta be less of a pessimist. That guy really likes you. Nothing was gonna go wrong.”

Newt shrugged. “Well, you know about it now.”

“Alby!” Minho shouted. “Get onto the dancefloor, we can deal with him later!”

Alby grinned. “See ya Newt.”

Just as he disappeared, Brenda took his place. “I need to talk to you.”

“Brenda!” Minho seemed to be a little exasperated, but not truly annoyed. Not yet at least. “We want to start!”

She waved dismissively in his direction. “Not playing, I’ll join in the next game, give me a forfeit if you want.” She sat next to Newt. “Are you two really going out? Because that’s amazing if you are, but I was talking to Thomas yesterday and-”

She was cut off by a cup being slammed on the table in front of her. Newt looked up at the same time as her to see that Frypan was the person who did it.

“Here’s your forfeit,” he said, looking way too happy about it.

She rolled her eyes. “And Newt doesn’t get one because?”

“Because my leg means dancing causes me pain,” said Newt. “I’m exempt from all games that involve that or excessive movement.”

“Huh? Really?”

“Yup,” said Newt. “Minho and I’ve had that rule in place since it happened.”

“Okay then,” said Brenda. She picked up the cup and downed its contents in one go. “Happy?”

“Very,” said Frypan, taking back the cup.

“How did you not react to that?!” came Gally’s voice from somewhere on the dancefloor.

“Because I’m stronger than all of you!” Brenda yelled back. She then stood, beckoning for Newt to do the same. “It’ll be quieter outside, c’mon.”

Some quiet did sound nice, and Brenda had just drunk some of Gally’s mystery concoction so she’d have the opportunity to talk to him, so Newt followed her out of the flat without any complaint.

The corridor was mostly empty except for a couple of people that Newt didn’t recognise who were sitting at the far end. They didn’t look over at Newt and Brenda, so Newt didn’t pay them any attention.

“Anyway,” she started, “as I was saying-”

“How _did_ you manage to not react to that?” asked Newt. “I’ve been on the receiving end of Gally and Fry’s creations, they’re not pleasant.”

She smiled. “That’s putting it mildly, it was horrible and I had to fight really hard not to spit it back out immediately. But Gally’s been trying to break me all semester and I’m not letting him win.”

“Is Fry helping you out, or-”

She laughed. “Nope! If anything he’s making things even worse before they make their way to me. He’s really the worst boyfriend ever.”

It was clear by her face and voice that she meant the exact opposite of that statement.

“ _Anyway,_ as I was _saying,_ I was talking to Thomas yesterday and you two definitely weren’t dating then, so what gives?”

Newt laughed nervously, though he hoped the nervous part didn’t come through. Damn, it had barely been 10 minutes and they’d already been caught in a lie? He raised the hand that wasn’t holding his cider to the back of his head and said, “Are you sure about that?”

“Yup,” she said. “He was specifically saying how happy he was for, and how jealous of us he was of, Fry and me. He was saying how badly he wished that the person he likes would realise it. It was a lengthy rant that Teresa and I patiently sat through, and I really doubt that he was lying to us that whole time.”

Almost as if she was summoned, Minho’s flat door opened and Teresa came out with a glass of water.

“Crash out?” asked Brenda, smarking at her friend.

“Your boyfriend sucks,” came Teresa’s response. She gulped at the water. “How the fuck did you survive that?”

“In Fry’s defense, it’s mostly Gally’s fault.”

“Frypan is still involved and therefore he sucks.” She drank some more. “But it’s okay because I need to be a part of this conversation.”

Both girls turned to look at Newt.

Newt swallowed.

“Look,” Brenda sighed. “Did you guys get together in the last -” she checked her watch “- 27 hours or so? Because if so then that’s fine! Or if you’re pretending to go out for some reason, then we won’t tell anyone, we just want to know what’s going on.”

“Yeah,” said Teresa, “what she said.”

Newt gave up. He’d just have to trust them.

“We’re pretending. Thomas told Miyoko that we were boyfriends so she’d stop trying to hook up with me. He was gonna set her straight next time he saw her. We weren’t expecting her to tell Sonya, and we definitely weren’t expecting Sonya to announce it to everyone. It’s snowballed very quickly.”

“I see,” said Teresa. “When were you planning on telling everyone the truth?”

Newt made an exaggerated shrugging gesture with his free arm. “I have no idea! I was gonna correct her immediately but Thomas said to just go with it.”

“So this is all Thomas’ idea?” asked Teresa.

Newt nodded.

Teresa had another drink of water. “Yeah that’s not surprising. Though this technique is questionable at best.”

“Technique?” asked Newt.

He was drowned out by Brenda saying “You’re telling me. If this goes wrong it could blow up spectacularly.”

“What do you mean?”

“What do you think, T?” said Brenda. “Reckon we should step in?”

Newt just stared at them in bewilderment.

“Yes Bren’, at this point they really need our help.”

“Okay,” said Brenda. “Newt. You know how I just mentioned in passing that Thomas had a crush on someone, and that he really wished his crush would notice him already?”

“Yeah,” said Newt. He’d honestly been trying to ignore that bit because with it came either pain, or hope and later pain, and nothing good could come of that. “Why?”

“It’s you,” said Brenda. “He has a massive crush on you. Has done for weeks.”

“And he won’t shut up about it,” added Teresa. “I swear at least half of our messages to each other are him freaking out about your eyes or something and me having no idea how to respond.”

For the second time that night, Newt’s mind blue-screened.

“Aww, do you think we broke him?” said Brenda.

“Bren’,” Teresa said in a disapproving tone. Then, softer, she said, “It’s pretty easy to figure out that you like him too. But it was also easy to tell that you didn’t realise it was requited.”

Newt shook his head. “You’re wrong. He doesn’t- I mean I don’t-”

“Newt,” said Brenda, “You look at him like he’s personally responsible for hanging the damn stars in the sky. Whenever he asks you to hang out you drop everything to be with him. You let him sleep on you when lectures get boring.”

“That doesn’t prove-”

“You cleaned up his sick that one time! You took total responsibility for looking after him until he got better!

“Okay, that was just me being a good friend, anyone else would’ve-”

“No Newt,” said Teresa, shaking her head, “they wouldn’t. Thomas drank too much, he made himself sick. His own fault. In that situation, friends offer advice, painkillers, and check up on you every now and then. That’s it. Especially when considering that most of us only met a few months ago. The vast majority of people definitely won’t clean up other people’s vomit unless that vomit is in a public place, which Thomas’ wasn’t. It was in his room, therefore should’ve been his to deal with. But you did it. And you stayed with him until he was completely recovered.”

“You slept in his bed,” chimed in Brenda.

“That’s when he started liking you, I think,” said Teresa. “Or when he realised he did. I’m certain it would’ve happened sooner or later anyway.”

“I’ve literally done the same thing for Minho, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Yeah because you and Minho have known each other since you were three, it’s different.” Brenda rolled her eyes and stole Newt’s cider can. “Would you do the same for Alby? Or Gally? Or hell, even me?”

Newt opened his mouth to say that yes, he would actually, but stopped when he realised that that would be a total lie.

“See?” said Brenda, and she began drinking the cider.

“Listen,” said Teresa. “You like him. He likes you. You’re currently pretending to date. I’m seeing a very easy fix to this situation. You’ve just got to be brave, because there’s no way he’s gonna do it himself.”

When Teresa was halfway through her last word, the flat door opened.

“Back inside you three,” said Minho. “We’re playing pass the parcel next!”

“Who won?” asked Teresa as they walked in.

“Winston,” said Minho. “Turns out the guy has really good balance and coordination.”

“Huh,” said Teresa, and she ran on ahead to where most of the group had already sat in a circle, claiming the free spot next to Aris.

Newt started to walk towards the nearest free spot, only for Minho to put his arm out in front of him to stop him.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Uh, to sit down?”

“Yeah, yeah.” He pushed him in a slightly different direction than he’d been headed in. “Go sit next to your boyfriend.”

Thomas waved Newt over. Newt sat in the space next to him.

“What did Brenderesa want?” Thomas asked, grinning. “Did they give you the shovel talk?”

While thinking of how best to respond to that, Newt searched Thomas’ face for any hint that what Brenda and Teresa, and Alby as well come to think of it, had told him was true.

Surely if Thomas actually did like Newt back, then Newt would’ve noticed. Or at least he would’ve noticed a change in the way that Thomas acted around him after the point which the girls claimed was the start of Thomas’ crush on him, even if he hadn’t been able to correctly identify what had happened.

Newt didn’t think he could’ve missed something a big as this.

But...

Thomas looked scared.

Yes, he was hiding it _very_ well, but Newt knew Thomas by now. Behind his easy, joking smile was some genuine fear. Which was all Newt needed to know it was true.

The girls were right.

Thomas really did like him back.

So now Newt just needed to be brave.

“Nah,” he said. “It was the opposite. They told me to tell them if you ever hurt me, and they’d sort you out.”

Thomas laughed, and the hidden fear disappeared from his face completely. “Those two could destroy me if they wanted to.”

“You’d better be careful with me then.”

“Duly noted,” Thomas said.

Newt was going to address it before the end of the night. But now, in front of everyone else, was neither the time nor place.

“Listen up everybody, this is how it’s gonna work!” Minho dropped a parcel onto Alby’s head. It was soft enough that it bounced off and into his lap. “You pass that around. When the music stops, if you’re holding the parcel, you unwrap a layer. Inside every layer should be a candy cane, so look out for that. Also if you unwrap a layer you get to pull a cracker and whatever’s inside is also yours. Whoever unwraps the last layer keeps the main prize. All understand?”

Everyone either nodded or said so out loud.

As the game got underway, Newt chatted quietly (or as quietly as he could given the music was fairly loud) with Thomas.

Now that Newt knew how Thomas really felt, he couldn’t help but feel like an idiot. Thomas was not being subtle. He almost never took his eyes off Newt, and kept glancing down to Newt’s lips. Newt didn’t think that Thomas was a good enough actor to be able to constantly keep that kind of stuff up to feed the pretense that they were in a relationship, especially since nobody else was really focusing their attention on them. Which meant that he was just doing these things. On his own. Whether he realised it or not.

How had Newt not noticed it sooner?

Because he’d been too distracted by his own pining, probably.

The sooner he could talk to Thomas in private, the better.

As the game went on, candy canes were won and crackers were pulled. Most people read out the awful jokes that came with inside the cracker as well. Teresa got a whistle, Brenda got a compass, Winston got a couple of balloons which he immediately blew up and let loose, Ben got a bottle opener, Alby got a pair of dice, and Gally got a mini magnifying glass.

Then the music stopped while the parcel was in Newt’s hands.

Carefully, Newt unwrapped it and claimed his candy cane. Unfortunately, he hadn’t won the centre prize, but he was sure by now that it was a jumper and knowing Minho’s sense of humour it was probably really ugly and the winner would be obliged to wear it, so he didn’t mind missing out. He caught the cracker that Minho tossed towards him, and offered its other end to Thomas.

They pulled it, and Newt looked inside.

The paper crown was green. He put it on. Next, he pulled out the slip of paper. He silently read the joke.

If it could even be called a joke.

“Well,” he said, bracing himself for what he was about to have to say. “How does Christmas Day end?”

“I don’t know,” a few people parroted back.

Newt sighed. “With the letter Y.”

“Get out,” said Gally, without missing a beat.

“Not my fault, blame the cracker,” said Newt. He scrunched the paper slip into a tiny ball and threw it towards Gally. He’d been aiming for Gally’s forehead, but missed completely and instead was forced to watch it sail through the gap between Gally and Ben.

Oh well. There’d be plenty of other opportunities to throw light and ultimately harmless things at Gally, just as Gally was sure to return the favour.

“What gift did you get?” somebody asked, possibly Aris but Newt couldn’t be entirely sure.

Newt reached inside the tube and curled his fingers around something plastic.

He pulled it out.

It was a small bit of plastic mistletoe.

Newt glanced up at the group. Most of them were looking at the mistletoe with curiosity or confusion. All except Minho, who had an expression of utter delight.

“Well,” said Minho, “that worked out a lot better than anyone expected.”

“Why, do you wanna add this to the decorations?”

“Nope!” Minho smiled. “Everyone else who got something that they could demonstrate did so. It’s only fair that you do the same.”

“It’s a lump of plastic, Min. How am I supposed to demonstrate that?”

Minho responded simply by raising his eyebrows and looking pointedly at Thomas.

Newt didn’t know what he’d expected.

He turned to Thomas. So many different emotions flew by on Thomas’ face that Newt wasn’t able to decipher any of them.

Newt wanted to kiss him. He _did._ And by now he was sure that Thomas wanted to kiss him back. But this, a public mistletoe kiss while they were only pretending to date and their feelings were still undiscussed, was really not ideal for their first one.

But Minho would never let them hear the end of it if they didn’t.

“You good?” Newt asked.

Thomas swallowed, and nodded. “Go for it,” he said. His voice seemed a little cracked, like he was struggling to speak.

Newt held the mistletoe up above them with one arm, and placed the fingertips of his other hand on Thomas’ cheek. He quickly leaned in and pressed a quick peck to Thomas’ lips.

“Come on,” came a girl’s voice as Newt began to move back. “You really call that a kiss? Isn’t that your boyfriend?”

Newt knew that Brenda was sitting somewhere behind him, so he didn’t even need to look at her to be able to flip her off. However, with the sound of her cackling in the background, he leaned back in towards Thomas. This kiss was still chaste, but it lasted a lot longer than the first one.

When he separated from Thomas, he only moved back far enough that they weren’t actively kissing anymore, and said “Still good?”

“Of course,” said Thomas.

Newt let the arm holding the mistletoe drop, grabbed Thomas’ hand, and squeezed. He then turned around to face the rest of the group as he picked up the parcel. “We can go again now.”

Only one other cracker had mistletoe in. Rachel was the lucky one who got it, and as she was sitting next to Miyoko, they ended up kissing. Miyoko seemed to have sobered up a lot, at least compared to how she’d been before. Newt could only assume that the clear liquid she had in her cup was water, rather than anything alcoholic. He mentally thanked whoever it was who made that decision.

The eventual winner of the jumper was Harriet. The jumper was made up of bright stripes of red and green, with a giant white snowman printed on the front. Harriet was indeed made to put it on.

The night carried on in much the same vein. Party games were played, various prizes were won, and Newt was seriously impressed that Minho’s Christmas playlist was as long as it was. Very few songs got repeated, and those that did were the ones that people would’ve been willing to listen to on repeat anyway.

(There was a solid hour where every third song was Mariah Carey. The singing along got more and more enthusiastic with each rendition.)

Eventually, however, the party had to come to an end. It was nearly 5am, and people were starting to crash. Brenda and Frypan were the first to leave, and once they’d done that the group gradually trickled out.

There weren’t very many people left when Newt and Thomas decided to leave. Thomas went to find Teresa, while Newt had a word with Minho.

“Thanks for making me come,” said Newt. “I had fun.”

“That’s great!” Minho pulled Newt into a hug. “Thanks for coming, man!”

“You’re not feeling too sick now, are you?”

Minho laughed. “I’m not the one who started chucking up. You’re mixing me up with Winston.”

“You _were_ feeling sick earlier.”

“Only a little!” Minho lowered his voice and said, “Look, this thing with you and Thomas, what’s actually going on? Because there’s no way that-”

“Honestly Minho?” said Newt, cutting him off. “There’s been a slight miscommunication that I’m going to fix just as soon as we leave. I’ll explain everything to you tomorrow, okay?”

“By ‘tomorrow’ do you mean later today, or actual tomorrow?”

Newt rolled his eyes. “I mean whichever it is when I remember to message you or tell you about it. But I promise that everything’s fine.”

“Okay,” said Minho. “Good that. Just wanted to be sure. You guys are two of my best friends, I really hope this works out.”

Newt smiled. “I think it will, you don’t need to worry.”

Thomas came back into the main room. “Minho, Teresa is asleep in your bed and refuses to move. I’ve tried, but she won’t budge.”

Minho shrugged. “I’ll just sleep on the floor then. Might as well put all those blankets to good use.”

“We ready to go?” Newt asked Thomas.

Thomas nodded, and the two boys said their final goodbyes to Minho.

As they walked across campus, they could occasionally hear the voices of other students doing their own thing, but it was mostly quiet, mostly still. And still as dark as if it were the middle of the night. Winter was funny like that.

They were about three quarters of the way to their own building when Newt made himself speak.

“Why did you tell Miyoko we were dating in the first place?”

“Huh?” Thomas didn’t turn to look at Newt. “Because we needed her to back off asap, and that was the first thing that popped into my head.”

“If I could’ve just told her to go away, couldn’t you’ve done that instead as well?”

“I guess, but I just said the first thing I thought of.”

“But how come it was that?”

Thomas stopped walking. Newt stopped too, and turned to face him. The streetlamp they were nearest to was broken, so it was too dark for Newt to fully see the expression on Thomas’ face.

“I don’t know, it just was!” Thomas crossed his arms and turned his head in such a way that even with the limited light, Newt could tell that he was avoiding eye contact. “We don’t have to keep up with it if it’s making you uncomfortable though.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say.”

“Then what _are_ you trying to say?”

The girls had been right. There really was no way that Thomas would admit it for himself. Not even when Newt tried to goad him into it, though admittedly his attempt wasn’t very good.

So. How was he going to go about this?

“Listen, Tommy,” Newt started. Then he stopped.

Part of him - no, _most_ of him - couldn’t believe he was doing this. But if he wanted to get anywhere with Thomas then he needed to. There wasn't a choice. He’d told Minho, and he’d promised himself, that he’d sort this situation out. Which meant he had to be completely honest.

“Yeah?” said Thomas.

Newt swallowed.

“I’ve got really mixed feelings about pretending to date you. On the one- No you shush and let me finish, this is important and you need to hear it.” He paused to see if Thomas was going to try and interrupt him again. When he didn’t, Newt took a deep breath and continued. “On the one hand, pranking our friends is always a laugh, especially seeing as they’ve all gotten invested enough to place bets. But on the other hand, I don’t think that I can carry on doing couple-y things with you if it’s all just pretend. Because I want to do them for real. I really like you, I have done for most of the time we’ve known each other, and I’d already accepted that you probably don’t feel the same so I wasn’t ever gonna bring it up. But I can’t keep going with this and not say anything because that wouldn’t be fair on either of us.”

There was a few seconds of silence before Thomas spoke.

“Are you done? Can I talk now?”

“Yeah,” Newt let out a nervous giggle as he spoke. “Yeah you can talk now.”

“Why on Earth did you convince yourself that I didn’t feel the same?”

“Well,” Newt looked at the ground, “you’re so much cooler than me in practically every way. You could get with anyone you wanted, there’s no reason you’d ever go for me. And I’m okay with that.”

Thomas didn’t respond to that verbally. Instead, he grabbed Newt’s hands and pulled him in.

This kiss was barely anything like the one under the plastic mistletoe earlier. This one was active, and desperate, and although they were in a more public place it was so much more private.

Newt didn’t know how long it was before Thomas broke away. “I’m not okay with that. Not at all. You need to believe in yourself more.”

“So you’re saying-?”

“I’m saying that I feel the same about you, you idiot.” Thomas shook his head almost imperceptibly, but was standing so close to Newt that he could feel it. “We’re both idiots. I realised I liked you weeks ago. I should’ve said something sooner.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” said Newt, smiling. “But this could’ve gotten a whole lot worse, so we’re not doing too badly.”

“How could this have gotten worse?” asked Thomas.

“Well,” said Newt, stepping away so he could speak more feely, “if Brenda and Teresa hadn’t given me the heads up, then I never would’ve realised that you actually did like me, so I’d never have plucked up the courage to tell you how I feel, and this whole fake-dating thing would’ve continued until it got messy and feelings got hurt.”

Thomas’ face fell. “They told you? When you all stepped outside?”

“They were doing what they thought was right! Please don’t be mad at them, they said you got kinda upset yesterday and they hated seeing you like that, and then with the whole pretending-to-date thing they were concerned. And I didn’t believe them at first. It wasn’t until I talked to you afterwards that I realised they were right.”

Thomas sighed. “I’m not mad at them,” he said, “because I’m grateful they got us - you - to finally talk about this. But I’m still gonna yell at them a bit because I didn’t give them permission to do that.”

“That’s fair,” said Newt. “Just please don’t be too hard on them.”

“I won’t.” He took a step closer to Newt. “Is it safe to assume that we’re not fake-dating anymore?”

Newt smiled. “It depends on what you mean by that.”

“I mean, are we dating for real now?”

“Do you want to be?”

“Yes,” said Thomas. “Yes I do. I want that a lot.”

Newt took Thomas’ hands. “Then yes,” he said. “I want that too.”

Thomas gently tugged on Newt’s hand, and they resumed their walk back to their building, fingers still intertwined.

And Newt knew that it didn’t matter what anybody else had gotten him for Christmas.

He had Thomas.

There was nothing else in the entire world that could top that.

**Author's Note:**

> can we also have a massive round of applause for bridge and dreams for organising this whole secret santa? bc they're amazing


End file.
